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Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places
Potluck suppers with could-be relatives, junkets to exotic locales, and the importance of strangers in our lives
In Never in a Hurry the poet Naomi Shihab Nye resist the American inclination to "leave toward places when we barely had time enough to get there." Instead she travels the world at an observant pace, talking to strangers and introducing readers to an endearing assemblage of eccentric neighbors, Filipina faith healers, dry-cleaning proprietors, and other quirky characters.
A Palestinian-American who lives in a Mexican-American neighborhood, Nye speaks for the mix of people and places that can be called the "American Experience." From St. Louis, the symbolic "Gateway to the West," she embarks on a westward migration to examine America, past and present, and to glimpse into the lives of its latest outsiders―illegal immigrants from Mexico and troubled inner-city children.
In other essays Nye ventures beyond North America's bounds, telling of a year in her childhood spent in Palestine and of an adulthood filled with cross-cultural quests. Whether recounting the purchase of a car on the island of Oahu or a camel-back ride through India's Thar Desert, Nye writes in wry, refreshing tones about themes that transcend borders and about the journey that remains the greatest of all―the journey from outside to in as the world enters each one of us, as we learn to see.
In Never in a Hurry the poet Naomi Shihab Nye resist the American inclination to "leave toward places when we barely had time enough to get there." Instead she travels the world at an observant pace, talking to strangers and introducing readers to an endearing assemblage of eccentric neighbors, Filipina faith healers, dry-cleaning proprietors, and other quirky characters.
A Palestinian-American who lives in a Mexican-American neighborhood, Nye speaks for the mix of people and places that can be called the "American Experience." From St. Louis, the symbolic "Gateway to the West," she embarks on a westward migration to examine America, past and present, and to glimpse into the lives of its latest outsiders―illegal immigrants from Mexico and troubled inner-city children.
In other essays Nye ventures beyond North America's bounds, telling of a year in her childhood spent in Palestine and of an adulthood filled with cross-cultural quests. Whether recounting the purchase of a car on the island of Oahu or a camel-back ride through India's Thar Desert, Nye writes in wry, refreshing tones about themes that transcend borders and about the journey that remains the greatest of all―the journey from outside to in as the world enters each one of us, as we learn to see.
280 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
12 people are currently reading
290 people want to read
About the author
Naomi Shihab Nye
134 books979 followersNaomi Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University. She is a novelist, poet and songwriter.
She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2010.
She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
May 10, 2018
These 39 essays by a well-known American poet focus on people in settings from St Louis, Missouri to the Near East to San Antonio, Texas to India and typically share her own experiences. The author is curious, observant, and has an eye for marginalized people others often miss. My favorites were her essays about family and traveling, especially her longer accounts of visiting her Palestinian grandmother and traveling through an Indian desert.
October 3, 2022
I took a break from reading poetry to read this book of essays by one of my favorite poets. I do not think I would’ve liked the book as much if I didn’t already love Naomi’s quirkiness and her poetry in general. There were several parts where I would’ve thought she was looney! But instead, since I already love her, I just laughed at how out there she can be at times. And can’t we all! What an interesting life she has lived, much of it because she not only acknowledges the marginalized people but purposefully seeks them out and engages with them. I especially enjoyed her story about the dry cleaner!
September 8, 2020
(about one of their neighbors...)
Pablo stood in his front yard pointing the hose toward his one big tree, whistling. He stood and stood, water coming out in a tiny stream. When I asked why he didn't turn the hose on harder, he stared at me. "For what?" He said trees didn't like to drink too fast. He had the patience of a porch swing, just hanging there, waiting.
...When Pablo speaks of the village in the mountains south of Monterrey, he stops smiling, as if those memories are a cathedral which can only be entered with a sober face.
I read this delightful collection of essays and reflections and narrative poems over a period of months, and am sad to have finally read the last one. The authors beautiful voice, her love for family and neighbors and friends, her keen eye, her unusual heritage (Scandinavian mother, Palestinian father), her exploration of her heritage and of the Middle East, as well as her home in Texas ... all of this (and more) invited me into her richly described life and I’ve decided I’d really like to stay at her home for a week.
(about a day trip to Mexico...)
Juan, his mother and I were headed for the border that day - to eat fragrant soup with cilantro, buy woolly ponchos and bottles of vanilla, and walk the streets of Piedras, fat with joy. We used to go to Mexico like that in those days, for soup and joy.
She’s also known for her poetry and juvenile books.
(reflecting upon a Girl Scout trip and her fear of snakes, then being attacked by a donkey...)
Here began a lifetime of quirks suspended on a single thread: the things we worry about are never the things that happen. And the things that happen are the things we never could have dreamed.
Incidentally, some of her earliest poetry I’ve also read, when she was grade-school age. Because she and I were both published in a small creative writing magazine called Power, way back in the ‘70s! I noticed back then that she always had multiple poems published in each issue (more than I did, for sure!) and so it’s sweet to now read and enjoy her thoughts and sense of humor and winsome language, inviting the reader into her interesting life.
(reflecting on her night in the hospital, after giving birth to her son)
How I tumbled into dreams after that, hugging the fatly anonymous pillow, dreaming the lips of babies, that sucking pull, the sigh and swallow, dreaming the nights ahead when each fine-tuned whimper would pull me back to earth, unfolding fists around a finger, dreaming the earth's secret rattle as it turned in space on its ancient implacable hinge.
Pablo stood in his front yard pointing the hose toward his one big tree, whistling. He stood and stood, water coming out in a tiny stream. When I asked why he didn't turn the hose on harder, he stared at me. "For what?" He said trees didn't like to drink too fast. He had the patience of a porch swing, just hanging there, waiting.
...When Pablo speaks of the village in the mountains south of Monterrey, he stops smiling, as if those memories are a cathedral which can only be entered with a sober face.
I read this delightful collection of essays and reflections and narrative poems over a period of months, and am sad to have finally read the last one. The authors beautiful voice, her love for family and neighbors and friends, her keen eye, her unusual heritage (Scandinavian mother, Palestinian father), her exploration of her heritage and of the Middle East, as well as her home in Texas ... all of this (and more) invited me into her richly described life and I’ve decided I’d really like to stay at her home for a week.
(about a day trip to Mexico...)
Juan, his mother and I were headed for the border that day - to eat fragrant soup with cilantro, buy woolly ponchos and bottles of vanilla, and walk the streets of Piedras, fat with joy. We used to go to Mexico like that in those days, for soup and joy.
She’s also known for her poetry and juvenile books.
(reflecting upon a Girl Scout trip and her fear of snakes, then being attacked by a donkey...)
Here began a lifetime of quirks suspended on a single thread: the things we worry about are never the things that happen. And the things that happen are the things we never could have dreamed.
Incidentally, some of her earliest poetry I’ve also read, when she was grade-school age. Because she and I were both published in a small creative writing magazine called Power, way back in the ‘70s! I noticed back then that she always had multiple poems published in each issue (more than I did, for sure!) and so it’s sweet to now read and enjoy her thoughts and sense of humor and winsome language, inviting the reader into her interesting life.
(reflecting on her night in the hospital, after giving birth to her son)
How I tumbled into dreams after that, hugging the fatly anonymous pillow, dreaming the lips of babies, that sucking pull, the sigh and swallow, dreaming the nights ahead when each fine-tuned whimper would pull me back to earth, unfolding fists around a finger, dreaming the earth's secret rattle as it turned in space on its ancient implacable hinge.
March 14, 2021
Naomi Shihab Nye is so generous with her writing. These essays were written over two decades ago, but they very well could have been written today. She writes about the seemingly small moments, like her home's tulips, and the big moments, trying to conceive. My favorite essay was the one about her move to Palestine when she was 14 & all the words written about her grandmother. I learned different things about the different corners of the world, and it is appreciated.
May 4, 2017
A beautiful collection of essays/prose poems. This Palestinian-American author who lives in San Antonio shares beautiful stories of the places she's lived, her Palestinian family's struggles, and her life. She often ties together seemingly unrelated stories into a universal theme. I am eager to read more!
March 16, 2021
Naomi Shabab Nye is more of a poet and it shows in her lyrical use of language in prose. Her stories float above the landscape like a cottonwood seed in the wind. They observe the people around her with a degree of detachment of one who lives in two cultures and does not feel at home in either. A very, worthwhile read.
May 5, 2019
A superb collection of observations arranged in short remembrances of the people and places in the author's life. Naomi Shihab Nye writes of life on either side of the hyphen: her American and Palestinian experiences and relationships are touching and deep.
May 28, 2022
The essays are short but immersive, and read like prose
June 10, 2023
This book had some interesting parts and some insightful parts. I wasn’t enthralled by it, either. The author makes good use of descriptive language.
September 27, 2025
my favorite book of all time, beautiful ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
February 20, 2016
What a gem of a book! I love creative, narrative non-fiction and perhaps the fact that Ms. Shibab is also a poet lends this collection a lilting and lyrical rhythm that held me captivated from first page to last. It truly humbles me when a writer can successfully immerse the reader in trivial activities of life - buying a used car in Oahu, driving her neighbor home from the store, describing a walk in the woods on the hunt for pussy willows - and reveal their stark and breathtaking beauty. The sorrow that under girds the pieces on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict left me aching. (Ms. Shibab's father is a Palestinian immigrant to America and she describes several trips back to visit her paternal grandmother who lives in a small village on the West Bank.) She is a gifted writer, one who can paint emotions that rise up from the page and grip you round the gut as you lose yourself in her vivid details.
August 8, 2012
A “very excellent,” wonderful compilation of personal short stories by a Texas-based woman of Palestinian-American origins. If only every book were like this one... I couldn’t put it down until I was done reading it.
It was refreshing to read about a woman who seemed happy and curious about the people around her, who made them come alive (again) through her depictions of their little idiosyncrasies and the circumstances of their lives. Her stories of her trips back to her father's Palestinian family were thoroughly interesting, and so was the family. A great book.
It was refreshing to read about a woman who seemed happy and curious about the people around her, who made them come alive (again) through her depictions of their little idiosyncrasies and the circumstances of their lives. Her stories of her trips back to her father's Palestinian family were thoroughly interesting, and so was the family. A great book.
November 20, 2010
A wonderful book of essays on people and places. Naomi Shihab Nye has a great eye and ear for situations; her books of poetry and her children's book Habibi are also great to read. But especially after reading Never in a Hurry I just wanted to savor the stories, rolling them around in my mouth before tasting another book. I will read anything by Nye -- I suspect if she wrote cook books they'd also be rich and rewarding.
May 24, 2011
Non fiction essays about her life are often entertaining, tragic, thought provoking, interesting, but never boring. Her honesty is deeply moving about her life as an Arab-American, with family who live, "on the lip of a beautiful mountain" in the war torn West Bank of the land formerly known as Palestine. She is the best Palestinian-American writer I know of and young enough to teach us for years.
January 30, 2009
Nye will be coming to campus in March/ April so the students will have a Masterclass with her-- the essays are short and easy to work with and one can develop writing assignments based around the book-- both analytical and creative. I don't know Nye's work much at all so it is a learning experience for me too.
April 26, 2016
I am so glad I read this collection of essays. They are beautifully written about her (poet’s) life. The essays are tight and lovely reflections on family and life in this world. She has grown up and lived in the United States and is of Palestinian background. It is wonderful writing, insightful observation, and more. This is one of my favorite reads in a while.
May 22, 2018
One of my favorite books ever. I read this on an international backpacking trip when I was 25...that was well over a decade ago and I still come back to these essays again and again. A great read for our time or anytime.
Featured on No Extra Words Episode 101.
Featured on No Extra Words Episode 101.
July 16, 2007
A poet writing prose. So good. And hopeful, helps you see the gentle light in dark issues, like Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
July 13, 2008
Naomi Shihab Nye writes essays as beautiful as her poems.
August 19, 2008
Excellent stories of the journey of life.
December 11, 2008
This collection of essays from the poet Nye is absolutely worth picking up.
Read
September 23, 2010This book explores the importance of community and traveling in order to learn about the experiences and values of others.
September 16, 2015
Nye is a poet, and it shows brilliantly in her prose. This collection of short non-fiction was a joy to read.
July 14, 2007
I like her writing, her politics, her perception, etc.
Want to read
December 1, 2009Great for teaching memoir. Recommended by Mary Chiarella.
April 18, 2017
Naomi Shihab Nye is my favorite poet. She is one of these writers who make the ordinary sound extraordinary in simple yet exquisite language. I love her humility and insights.This book of essays is snippets of her life meeting different peoples across different cultures. You could tirelessly hear her voice retelling these interesting encounters and come back for more.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews